Rockets

A project that rekindled a love for cartoons and their place in quirky and whimsical designs. Huge spike in this kind of illustration after this project.

This entire deck was created using a single app for iPad Pro - ProCreate.

Coffee time

Retro set of coffee illustrations. Have it any way you like it.

A yawn is a silent scream for coffee.

Bedtime Story Font

BEDTIME STORY IS A BOLD & WHIMSICAL FONT FROM OBAN DESIGN STUDIOS

Bedtime Story harks back to the classic gothic lettering style that we've come to associate with fairytales and medieval fables about knights galant and lost princesses. Modernised through an asymmetric and quirky treatment, Bedtime Story is ideal for contemporary takes on childhood tropes and Disney title sequence inspired designs.

Bedtime Story has both uppercase, lowercase characters as well as numbers set and special characters.

High Life Typeface

Borrowing from the art deco movement, high life is reminiscent of a bygone time, when class and sophistication were prized above all else.

high life has both a serif and sans serif version & when combined with a numbers set and a variety of special characters, high life is perfect for bold statement pieces, arresting titles and tasteful vintage designs.

Or try a lite sample version for FREE in thefreebie section of the site.

7th Street Cofections

A series of nonsense machines illustrated for packaging, web and brand assets for a new line of high end chocolates.

Talons Alliance

"Talons are a unique manifestation of power & cunning. Much like the claws on a bird of prey, playing cards are the chosen weapon for magicians in the wild."

The Hellions

A show stopping deck designed for Daniel Madison and released with Ellusionist, The Hellions were over a year in the making and went through several severe reiterations before making it out into the world. Both Daniel and I felt very strongly about this deck and getting it perfect was highly important to us.

The artwork combined with a strong marketing campaign by Geraint Clarke resulted in a runaway success, selling out completely in prerelease.

Summer Time

Sun, surf and cocktails.

Confessions

Following on from my work on the Madison Hellions the project expanded out into 3 more decks. By the end the set covers damnation, confession, sacrifice and salvation, which are pretty weighty subjects to tackle with any medium.

Each deck has a different feature ace, highly detailed and hand drawn, and as with the rest of the decks a classical ornateness melds with a modern simplicity. The decks themselves are a treasure trove of easter eggs, linking to the theme of each design. whilst the back designs follow the same layout, thematic intricacies entered around the Madison M logo, they take on very different aspects from one another.

WW

I am the one who knocks.

- Walter White (Heisenberg)

Ghost + Glory

Ghost + Glory is a UK lifestyle brand for the wanderers & risk-takers.

Ghost + Glory is a passion project between myself and Geraint Clarke. We wanted to create a clothing brand that we wanted to wear almost for the pleasure of doing it. After 6 months of having fun with it we are starting to see some interesting growth, but in interest in the brand and in how we work with in it.

All the T-shirts and Jumpers are sustainably sourced, manufactured using a carbon neutral process.

Check out the Store or the Instagram@Ghost.Glory to pick up a sweet new T or find out more about G+G.

Red Knights

A clean and modern deck design centred around an ornate and classical game. I love a project that gives me a chance to tip perceptions on their head.

Ghost Train

Giraffe

Aurelian

The Aurelian playing cards are a homage to the traditional Tally-ho circle backs, conceived between Geraint Clarke and myself, and over a year in the making.

This hyper detailed Roman themed deck honours the short but fascinating reign of Emperor Aurelian. A low born military leader and cunning tactician; upon rising to power his first act was to brutally seize the imperial mint and strike his own gold coins to distribute amongst his men, thus ensuring their loyalty. Smart dude.

Custom Type

These are the results of a few experiments with different whimsical typefaces, using my name as jumping off point. Playing with new ideas like this helps me to discover what does and doesn't work in type, and how to display lettering in interesting ways.

Some of these have been worked up into font kits that I will be making available.

Insomniac

This was the redesign/2nd version of my first solo deck of cards, produced with Ellusionist. A sort of reboot of a classic, and as with any reboot it needed to be an improvement on the original to avoid redundancy.

I reworked any design elements I thought were a little rough or clumsy from the first design, as well a stripping back massively on the packaging, opting for blind embossing over most of the original in work.

From the pen to YOUR hands | Sleepers Insomniac Edition

A to B

There are many ways of getting about these days. An almost paradox of choice situation.

Montgomery Leather Works

Disney Castles

Carpe Noctem

Night Blooming Cereus. One of the strangest plants of the desert, the night blooming cereus, is a member of the cactus family that resembles nothing more than a dead bush most of the year. It is rarely seen in the wild because of its inconspicuousness.

Queen of the night But for one midsummer's night each year, its exqusitely scented flower opens as night falls, then closes forever with the first rays of the morning sun.

Carpe Noctem by Chris Ramsay

Skullduggary

noun: skullduggery

underhand, unscrupulous, or dishonest behaviour or activities.

Snap

Who doesn't like a little retro photography.

Black Legacy

Project Product Page Copy

In early 2003, in the very beginnings of the Ellusionist brand, Brad Christian crafted a Photoshop image of Black Tigers, and wrote a letter to the ultra-conservative, 126 year old behemoth, United States Playing Card Company. He asked them simply to do something they had never done. He asked them to step outside of their box, their comfort zone, and allow the printing of an outrageous, completely BLACK version of their beloved Bicycle deck.

They loved how different the deck was. Thus giving birth to the custom playing card market. Shooting up the rankings and selling over 1 million decks in their original designs.

The Black Legacy box set is a celebration of inevitable progress. 3 exquisite decks that broke all of the rules, and took no prisoners.Re-imagined, re-vamped and re-invigorated with multi level embossing and two tone foiling.

The Legacy Continues with these all new designs.

Cat's Paw

The Unlocked Series

Branding, print materials and micro site designs for a short series of talks about technologies place in healthcare

Villas

The sparse and beautiful geometric Landscapes of La Muralla Roja.

Bumble Bee

One of two bee themed decks that were designed to bring awareness to and raise support for our dwindling bee population. Inspiration taken from the romanticised idea of the victorian bee keeper in his cottage.

Prohibition Series

2014

Dipping my toes into the world of playing card design for the first time with this series. One most decks I worked purely on the courts cards, but designed the pips for White Wolf as well, and did the whole deck for Disparos.

Design collaboration with and photos by Mike Clarke

Absinthe

Rebellion Rum

52 Proof Whisky

White Wolf Vodka

Moonshine

Disparos Tequila

La Santa Coffee

Small branding project for a Madrid based coffee house.

Cowboy

Joyful Geometry

Tick Tock

Experiments in new illustration and lettering styles using Disney's Cinderella as a jumping off point...because why not.